Innocence
by Tiro
Summary: Kakuzu wondered how he got himself into this situation. Why couldn't it have happened to Hidan?


**Innocence**

**Summary**: Kakuzu wondered how he got himself into this situation. Why couldn't it have happened to Hidan?

**Pairing/s**: None.

**Warnings**: Eh, Kakuzu a little bit OOC? That's about it.

**Disclaimers**: I don't own Naruto.

-o-

Kakuzu wondered how he got himself into this situation. Why couldn't it have happened to Hidan?

…

Had it happened to Hidan, the albino probably would have done something stupid. Kakuzu looked sideways, then returned to his newspaper and wondered who had possessed him, how and why, and he would like to know that right at this moment. Because that had to be it. There was no way he would have done this on his own free will.

Right…?

_Sigh_.

Time to investigate.

First of all, had he woken up strangely?

A normal person would count waking up by Hidan screaming about his Jashin-sama as pretty strange, but for Kakuzu, that was the most natural part of the day. He would be more worried if the albino didn't shout about Jashin way too early in the morning (sometimes he wondered if the freaking immortal did it to annoy him, and if so, he sure succeeded).

Anyway, nope, he had woken up just fine.

Something in the food?

He had to admit, there had been occasions when he wished someone would just do him in, because he always manage to choose the places with the worst food. Then again, he only choose those when he got tired of chasing squirrels in the forest. Why couldn't they ever see a deer or something, you know, an animal that actually tasted good when cooked?

The food had tasted crap like usual, so he suspected the food was not the issue.

The day in general?

Well, Hidan had been a pain in the ass. But he was that every day. Whining about this and that, 'How does my hair look?', 'Why can't we eat here?', 'Kakuzu, I'm _tired'_, 'Don't go insult Jashin-sama damnit! Heathen!' and so it went, on and on and _on_. Kakuzu really wanted to chop off the immortal's head and sew his mouth together if just for five minutes of peaceful silence.

If he did that though, he wouldn't get any peace for the next year or so. So he had endured it, like any other day. Why had this day been different then?

First thing that was different about this was that Hidan was not there with him. Kakuzu wondered if the immortal's absence made him do weird things. Like he was thrown off balance. But why? If anything, he should have danced the Hula Hula just because he got rid of the albino for a while.

Instead, he went and did… _this_.

He mourned the loss of his usual rational thinking, and his eyes were drawn sideways again.

Hn. At least the girl was quiet.

Yes, a girl. A small one. A brat on top of that. Sleeping with that cute face of hers… Kakuzu growled at his own thoughts and returned to the newspaper. He must be going crazy.

He had heard her when walking outside of the village he and Hidan were currently in. Hidan had run off somewhere, leaving the banker no choice but to wait for him. Thirty minutes in their room, and the man was climbing the walls.

Twenty minutes on the streets of the village, and he was convinced if he did not get out right this moment, he would end up killing everyone. So he had taken a walk outside the village.

Hearing her sniffles, Kakuzu had tilted his head, walked a bit away from the road, into the forest, and pushed aside a bush. And there she had been. She had suffered a broken leg, and had been unable to shout loud enough for anyone in the village to hear her. She had nearly sobbed in relief seeing his face… well, technically his mask but you get the point.

Not only had he splinted her leg but also carried her to the small clinic in the village. And here they were.

He had been asked to sit and wait until they could track down her mother, who was working in another village, and getting her to her daughter. That was two hours ago and he hadn't left.

The big question hovered in his mind:

Why?

Why had he even bothered to answer any questions? Why had he bothered sitting down by her bed? Why had he said he could wait?

It couldn't all have come from the fact he was bored, right? No, when he was bored bloodshed usually occurred. Instead, he had stopped one. He had helped someone.

That was scaring him.

"Mister?"

Oh dear god… the brat was awake too.

His eyes shifted down on her. Normally people screamed in fear seeing his eyes. Normally they would try to crawl away from him, cowering in fear.

Normally…

Why couldn't she be normal?

Because instead of screaming in fear, she beamed up at him, all dimples and twinkling and he felt sick to his stomach. Bad food. He blamed bad food on that.

"Yes?" he answered finally.

"You really stayed… you're a nice person."

That had to be the most wrong thing said in the century.

"They said your mother should arrive any moment," he said instead and turned back to his paper.

"What'cha reading?"

And she made it quite clear, he wasn't escaping to any newspaper as long as she was awake. That was why he hated kids. Eyes looking over at her, she simply smiled. How come she's the only one who does that when looking into his eyes?

Someone was wrong with her.

"News," he said tonelessly.

"News? What kind of news?" She seemed eager.

"Economy." If you wanted to make money, you better be well informed about everything that's happening.

That seemed to make her even more eager and he wondered where the hell the sudden sugar-kick came from. And the interest of economy. He let her take a look at the newspaper.

"Mom always says I'm gonna get bored reading about economy any day soon but I don't believe her! I love reading it!"

Kakuzu stared at her. Something stirred, and underneath the mask a small smile formed. Such innocence, yet so much promise.

No wonder he saved her ass. Good asset for the future.

And so he concluded, even as the two continued to read, maybe he was not as crazy as he feared.

End

* * *

I've written up a couple of scenarios I wanted Kakuzu and Hidan in, and it popped into my head today, like a half-year after I've written them! So I took one and turned it into this little one-shot. Hope you enjoyed!

Until another time,

Ja,

Tiro


End file.
